God is an eternal being, what seems to us simple mortals as a drear immensity of wasted time is to him, but a twinkle of an eye. There are two fine things in the World: to be part of the News Press and to despise it. I do not hesitate for one moment as to what my choice had to be. Behavior is dependent upon or classified World. In a sense, some people have no choice: many have already committed themselves to a reverence for language, to a preservation and promotion of its purity and dignity; hence, the press, the official languages of commerce, of the profession, and especially the government, are our focus and cannot be our own vehicles. The names or class terms attached to aspects of the environment, both physical and social, carry meaning in the form of shared behavioral expectations that grow out of social interactions. From the interaction with others, one learns how to classify objects one comes into contact with and in the process also learns how one is expected to behave with reference to those objects. When people ignore an individual or their contributions this is called Totschweigetaktik—literally, the tactic of killing by keeping silent or ignoring, or the silent treatment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
It is important to strive to be a shining light of integrity in a morass of dubious morality, a beacon of genuineness in a sea of spuriousness. While we may not only strive for ourselves, as we attain these lofty goals they may come at no small price to ourselves. If punishment is the price repentance asks, it comes at bargain price. Consequences, even painful one, protect us. So simple a thing as a child’s cry of pain when his or her finer touches something uncomfortable can teach us that. Except for the pain, the child might be consumed. There also is a mortal danger, through the debasement of language, to a person as a dignified and spiritual being. Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that is may give grace to those who hear. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. National Socialism did not destroy the press; rather, the press created National Socialism. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
As the shadow of National Socialism fell over Germany and Austria in the early 1930s, the corruption of language corrupts morals and politics. The misuse of spirit and of language won the victory. That is why the news media is being used as a tool of propaganda. People know that if they can control the flow of news, they can control the minds of masses. That is why it is important to put away crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. One must be brave and occupy oneself with the study of language. It is important to pray. The World is only frightening only if we insist on denying the reality of evil and the beauty of religion, faith and spiritual resignation, denials which so deeply defiles a person. It is important to celebrate the dignity of the individual, regardless of one’s race, religion, or nationality. Among the class terms learned in interactions are the symbols that are used to designate positions, which are the relatively stable, morphological components of social structure. It is these positions which carry the shared behavioral expectations that are conventionally labelled roles. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We are taught to show respect toward any person from whom one has learned, but a single letter. How, then, can I honor you enough? How deep should be my gratitude? It is readily confessed that we would find no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a World without repentance. We do not know what we should do if there were no way for us to erase our mistakes. The agony would be more than we could bare. Persons who act in the context of organized patterns of behavior, i.e., in the context of social structure, name one another in the sense of recognizing one another as occupants of position. When they name one another, they invoke expectations with regard to each other’s’ behavior. An Atonement was made. Atonement is a satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends. The doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind means that we are not damned nor cursed. We have a reconciliation with God. Every and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that within our hands, and agency is ours to use it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Behavior is the product of a role-making process, initiated by expectations invoked in the process of defining situations but developing through a tentative, sometimes extremely subtle, probing interchange among actors that can reshape the form and content of interaction. We might object to people who conduct themselves without dignity and who abuse language—and to those physicians who use language of psychiatry to deprive people of their liberty and the language of psychoanalysis to deprive them of their individual and integrity. The adversary in cleaver ways manipulates our choices, deceiving us about sin and consequences. However, agency is ours. The greatest amount of freedom for each individual, limited only by consideration for the freedom of others. We look up, and in the Universe we see the handiwork of God and measure things by epochs, by eons, by dispersions, by eternities. The many things we do not know we take on faith. These values make life worth living. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. Our soul reaches after God, as he is our Lord and our Redeemer, our advocate. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Available information wisely used is far more valuable than multiplied information allowed to lie fallow. Imperfections of a person’s language mirror the imperfections of one’s character; and to purify our ethics and conduct, we must first purify our grammar and language. The connection between maltreated words and the maltreatment of human souls and bodies, and we avenge lives by restoring words to their state of integrity, health, and vigor in which, of their own accord, we could speak to the yet unknowing World how these things came about. Through one it is language itself that opens its mouth and speaks to those who use it deceitfully. However, they are forgers of lies, and all physicians of no value. The correct language is a religious matter. On the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received. This eternal principle applies to all we have been given. There is a relationship between the control of language and of liberty, between the destruction of the human word and the human soul, between semantics and politics. An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6